Month: January 2015

This week in the classroom has been all about math. Multiplication tables, decimals, adding monies, graphs, adding (large numbers) with regrouping and subtraction (large numbers) with regrouping. She spent a lot of time on her math program website. It was a big week to really work the brain!

With a few items around the house we were able to finish this…

Her finished photo nature journal that we started on Monday
but was not able to finish until today.

Memory verse with handwriting for the week.

Dictation passage 1 with handwriting.

Both dictation passages for the week are President George Washington quotes. She did an amazing job on each and her handwriting is so beautiful!

Wow what a difference 24 hours can make! It’s not sunny. It’s not warmer. It’s cloudy and cool but at least there is no rain.

In the classroom today, we started our day a little later than normal however we did get everything completed by 3:15 p.m. Great job Isabel!

After most of our new work for the day was completed. I had a big review planned from yesterdays lesson on comparative and superlative adjectives.

Some words I had picked out for her to work with.

Giving her only a few hints and helps along the way.

She flew through this recap of yesterdays lesson.

Her completed word list. I think she’s got the idea of comparative and superlative adjectives.
Fantastic!

Today we finally finished our book, Johnny Tremain by E. Forbes. Difficult to read but what a great story of heroism from those who chose to fight for freedom!

Afterward we had a few review questions about the book and than for a BIG surprise, I had rented the Disney movie (same name) for us to watch! The movie does’t do the book justice but you can get what the main idea of what the book is about. Always reading the book is better in my opinion.

What a gorgeous day we had. Blue skies. Warmer temperatures. I think our final temperature for the day was 62 degrees. Nice! for January.

In the classroom, Isabel worked hard this morning and had most of her work completed by lunch. So proud of her hard work! We were able to get outside before the sun set behind the tree line buffer.

This week’s Bible verse is…

“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” – John 1:4

We are continuing to add on to the verses that we have been learning for the past 3 weeks…

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things are made, without him nothing
was made that has been made.”
– John 1:1-3

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Our Native American prayer focus is the Potawatomi tribe of the Upper Mississippi River and the Great Lakes areas.

The dictation passage for this week are 2 quotes from George Washington…

“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

“It is far better to be alone, than to be in bad company.” – George Washington

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From our dictation passage quotes, she had to find the adjectives, which lead us to the study of comparative and superlative adjectives.

Comparative adjectives: are adjectives we use to compare two nouns and they can be easily recognized because they end in “-er“.

examples: taller, wider, higher, deeper and longer

for words with more than 2 syllables long: more interesting, more difficult, more noticeable and more beautiful

Superlative adjectives: are comparing three or more nouns and most end in “-est” or are paired with the words most or least

examples: fastest, wisest, easiest and freshest

most improved, more noticeable, more perfect, most nervous

Irregular adjectives: those words that are not based on a single root word.

examples:

many – more – most
good – better – best
bad – worse – worst
far -father – farthest
much – more – most

Some of our examples from today.

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Today we started 2 new books.

“Listening to Crickets” by C.F. Ransom

This book is about Rachel Carson, the women who started the environmental movement and is a part of our science lessons. Being good stewards to the world that was given us means we need to take care of what He provided for us.

“The Cabin Faced West” by J. Fritz

In math we did a whole lesson on Roman Numerals. The most common numerals are…

Isabel learned these so quickly! I was impressed by how well she did.

Later this afternoon, we went on a nature walk to make a photo journal for a science project. We walked around the neighborhood and Isabel took photos that caught her eye. See below…

We haven’t been able to work on the new credenza but tonight we were able to. We stripped the drawer fronts and got the credenza top stripped as well.

Drawers waiting to be stripped.

2 of the 9 drawers to be stripped.

The stripper works well for getting the rolled paint off but getting the old stain underneath is going to take some work. Gino has purchased what he will need, so hopefully on a good weather weekend we can really get to work on this project. I’m still super excited about seeing this completed and have it’s new home ready for when it’s complete.

3 drawers Gino stripped last night but I didn’t get photos.

Close-up of the already stripped drawer face.

1 of the 2 credenza doors.

Close-up of the hinge on one of the doors.

The inside beams (where the drawer sits) were spray painted while the whole outside was painted with a roller.

Feeling groggy, I was the first one up and went to check on Isabel. She was still sleeping and I really hated to wake her but we needed to get going with our day.

I asked her how her throat was feeling and she said it was still hurting and sore. I felt her head and she felt warm, so after checking her temp, realized she had a slight fever of 100.1. I told her to stay in bed while I made her something to eat. She ate a small bowl of oatmeal and while she finished I began the day with Bible reading. I did both Isabel’s reading and my own.

We completed our 2 new books for the week.

“And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?” by J. Fritz and “Phoebe the Spy” by J.B. Griffin

I couldn’t see why stretching these easy-readers out until Friday would be worth it. So we read both, completed the review questions and then around 10 a.m. we both headed back upstairs for a nap! I slept for about an hour and Isabel stayed in bed keeping warm (don’t know if she slept).

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Around noon, we got up again and had some lunch. My sore throat (like Gino’s) comes and goes, it’s not a constant pain. Isabel’s on the other hand, is constant. When and if she talks her throat is thick and heavy. Poor girly.

In the afternoon we focused on all the written work for the day:

Spelling

Science

Language Arts

English

Math

Art

(insert photo of spelling test)
spelling tests.

Simple, complete, compound subjects and predicates in sentences. What are they?

Subject is the who or what the sentence is about. Can be simple, complete or compound.

Predicate is the information about the subject in the sentence. Can be simple, complete or compound.

These concepts are complex and can not be learned in a day. However Isabel is doing great figuring out what is what. We’ll continue to work on them to get a better understanding.

Confidence in writing is key!

Subjects and predicates learning what they are on the easel and worksheets.

Later in the afternoon, I asked Isabel about her throat was feeling. On a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the worse and 1 feeling normal, she gave her throat an 8 or a 7. I checked her temp again and it had gone down a degree to 99.0. We’ll keep monitoring the temp and how her throat is feeling.

About her butterfly mobile… we got it finished today after class and it looks great!

We are back from our long weekend and we are all sick or not feeling well. We don’t want to be sick!!!

It started with Gino having a sour throat yesterday and this morning Isabel and I had one. Mine wasn’t all that bad but Isabel said her throat was really hurting. She sounds really thick when she talks, so we are soothing it with honey. If it still persists and doesn’t seem to be getting any better I’ll take her to the doctor. Gino says his sore throat comes and goes. So him and I will bump up our herbal intake and see how it goes.

Since Isabel wasn’t feeling well. I did all the reading, while she listened.

The Bible verse for this week is…

“Through him all things are made, without him nothing was made that has been made.”
– John 1:3

Isabel’s written copy from the Bible.

We are also going over the last 2 weeks verses as well, to tie them all together.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
– John 1:1“He was with God in the beginning.” – John 1:2

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The dictation passage for the week is several pithy proverbs for Ben Franklin…

“A stitch in time saves nine.”

“Fish and visitors stink after three day.”

“God helps them that help themselves.”

After reading through them, we discussed what Isabel thought their meaning was. She said she didn’t quite understand them and thought they were a bit strange. Our discussion lead to the real meaning of each one and how or if they still apply to our world today. Great talk!

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Our new books for this week are:

“And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?” by J. Fritz and “Phoebe the Spy” by J.B. Griffin

Both books are easy readers and we should have them completed by Friday.

Spelling test(s) for today were…
(only 2 more days of double testing and than we’ll be caught up!)